When I was young I dreamt of the stars
by EllieSong
Summary: When Ella, Tim Latimer's granddaughter, was sitting in the park, she never imagined who she will meet there. And neither did Doctor.


**A/N: it's my first story so please, be gentle :D Also, English is not my first language and this story is not beta-ed so please forgive me the mistakes :)**

**I only own Ella here, the Doctor and everything else from DW is owned by BBC.**

After a long and stressful day Ella was sitting in the park. She loved nature and she felt close to her mother in those rare moments.

Her mother, Joanna, died when Ella was only 9 years old. It was the cancer who took Joanna from her daughter and husband.

The night before she died, she told Ella a very special story, about a very special man.  
><em>"There is a man out there"<em>she said, "_who is both great and scary. He is like fire and ice and rage. This man travels across time and space. He is ancient and forever. But most of all, he is wonderful."_

The story was, of course, longer. But this was all Ella remembered. Joanna said that this is an old story and that everybody in her family knew it. The first to tell it was Joanna's grandfather who was called Tim Latimer. He survived both world wars and he always claimed that he survived the first war just because of this man.

Ella smiled when she thought about those distant times when her mother told her this story. Those memories were bitter and sweet at the same time.  
>Suddenly, a weird sound brought her back to the reality. She looked around, but wasn't able to see anything. Yet, the voice didn't go away, it just became stronger.<p>

She looked around again. She gasped and closed her eyes. "I must be dreaming. I'm dreaming." She told herself.

But when she opened her eyes, she was still able to see the thing _materializing_on her left.

Suddenly the door opened and a skinny man appeared.

"Which day is today?" he asked, rather confused.

"It's Friday." Ella replied, feeling a bit weird. How could anyone not know which day it is?

"Oh, it is 2012, right?" The man said, now grinning. "It's an awesome year!"

"Yeah, sure is." Ella was even more confused. "Who are you? I mean, you don't know which day it is...and then you ask if it is 2012..." She didn't finish her thought.

"Oh! How rude of me. I'm the Doctor." He said, offering Ella a hand.

"Ella Perrin. You're a Doctor of what?" she asked.

"Oh, just the Doctor. Is Perrin a French name?" He replied casually, like it was normal to be called the Doctor.

But then Ella remembered more details from the story her mother told her. And now she was sure that there was no name mentioned. Just occasionally, her mom

"Yup, it's French. My dad's French. How do you call this police box?"

"Oh, It's the TARDIS. It is short for time and relative dimension in space."

"Oh my God. You are real." Ella gasped with surprise. She always assumed that her great grandfather just had a really vivid imagination.

"Of course I'm real." The Doctor seemed a bit upset when Ella said this. "I assume you heard about me then?" he added.

"My mom told me a story about you. I can't really remember it. But she said that her grandfather told the story first. He also claimed to know you. He said you saved his life."

He looked at her. "I did? What was his name?"

"Tim Latimer."

"Tim? Really? Oh, he was such a brave man." Suddenly the Doctor seemed distant and Ella guessed that he was thinking about the times when he met her ancestor.

"Anyway, Ella. Did you see anything suspicious out here?" he asked suddenly.

"Nope. Everything is just normal. Boring and normal." Ella replied.

"Oh. Fridays, I hate Fridays. They are always so boring!

Want to see the TARDIS? And, by the way, do you know what Tim did with a clock? It was old-fashioned one."

Ella put her hand in the pocket. "You mean a watch that looked like this? I haven't seen anything like this before and it looked interesting so I kept it."

"Well...Do you want to see the space?" Doctor said and took the watch from Ella's hands.

"I want this back." she pointed at the watch. "My mother gave it to me."  
>The Doctor nodded and headed towards the TARDIS, the watch still in his hands and Ella just a step behind him.<p>

"Oh my God! It is bigger on the inside!" Ella gasped when she walked in. "And it is beautiful."

"Haven't they told you about it?" the Doctor said with a grin. "Oh, I forgot. Tim never got to see it from the inside. He only saw it from outside."

"Where do you want to go?" he asked and yet it looked like he had already made his decision.

"I was just planning to go wherever you would take me." Ella told the truth.

She knew Doctor for a half an hour and she didn't have much time to think about it.

"I've always wanted to see the stars though." She added, but it was more of a whisper.

"You can see the stars. And everything that ever happened or anything that ever will. Did you ever hear about Barcelona? They have dogs with no noses." He started rambling.

"I believe you are not talking about the city in Spain, right? Because I think that in Spain dogs actually have noses. I'm pretty sure that I saw dogs with noses once when we spent summer vacations there."

He just looked at Ella. After a few minutes of silence, he decided to speak.

"No, I'm talking about a planet Barcelona. I've never been to Barcelona on Earth."

"There is a planet called Barcelona? Really?"  
>Ella couldn't help but laugh. Barcelona sounded so…earth like. Not like a name of another planet.<p>

"So, are you coming then? Or you want to stay here?" Doctor asked her.

"Of course I want to go. I told you that I've always dreamt of the stars. I want to see them!"

When she said that, some memories from childhood came back. "Ever since my mother told me the story about you, I wanted to travel in that box of yours." She smiled.

"And I saw how you looked at that watch. Was there any specific story about it?" She knew she might be asking too much but suddenly she could get to know more about her grandfather.

"Well it is the story about me and your grandfather and a brilliant doctor called Martha Jones." he said as he pressed buttons all over control desk and the TARDIS started to make noises that Ella heard for the first time just about an hour earlier.


End file.
